Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-21
BRAINS ON FOUR LEGS.
Animals That Have Learned
Lots of Things.

music, ana very MUCH eXaSperateu
whenever her master plays on the
violin. She will lie ON the sofa and
purr approvingly whenever one of the
Young ladies performs waltz or other
lively piece on the piano, and will
listen attentively to the children's
songs, but as soon as her owner begins
to tune up his violin she becomes
very uneasy. The moment he
starts to play a tune the cat
darts at him as if she had sud-
denly been seized with a fit, scratches
viciously at the lower part of his trou-
sers leg and squalls as though she was
in great pain. If he continues to
play after this demonstration of her
disapproval of that kind Of music, the
cat jumps up and tries to snatch the
noisy instrument out OF his hands,
and when she finds that she cannot do
that, she runs around the room and
news piteously. As soon as the gen.
tleman lays the violin down on the
piano and speaks kindly to the cat
she seems pacified at once, trots over
to where he is standing, rubs her head
and back lovingly against his ankles,
and purrs contentedly, looking up to
him and acting as if she wanted to
tell him that she would always be a
good cat if he would never make any
more of those hateful sounds. But, SO
sure as he undertakes to resume play
ing, the cat begins her tantrums and re-
fuses to be quiet until he has put
down the violin again. She is fond OF
organ music, but she cannot be taught
to like the noise made by the violin
strings. She will tolerate the guitar,
but the violin never. The gentleman,
who is an excellent amateur violinist,
prizes pussy very highly, and, when
ever he wishes to entertain his friends
with little music from his favorite
instrument, he has servant to take
the cat to her little house in
the back yard and fasten her
in. As soon as the guests
have departed, puss is allowed to
come into the house, when she scam
pers from one member of the family
to the other, and purrfully expresses
her gratitude at being permitted to
be where they are once more.
A Sixteenth Ward resident tells the
following story about his cat and him.
self. According to his own story he
is occasionally in the habit of going
home in a half-intoxicated condition,
and the story he tells is that the cat
knows, the moment he opens the door
of his residence, that he has been
drinking. Then she looks at him a
moment as much as to say: " Ah, ha,
old fellow, you've been tippling
again, haven't your" and dilates her
nostrils and sticks up her nose as if
the smell of liquor was offensive to
her. The next thing she does is to
rush from the roof, and all tn, coax
ing in the world would not induce her
to come back. She remains away
and entirely out of sight until late in
the afternoon of the following day,
when she creeps stealthily into the
back kitchen, looking about to see If
her owner is anywhere in sight,
If he is not she cautiously
trips into the sitting room in
search of him. If he is there she
can tell at glance whether he is
sober or not, and if he is sober, she
walks slowly to her place in the COR
ner and lies down, without appearing
to notice his presence. In case he is
still a 'little off," he says she will
dart from the house and stay out of
sight for another day. He says he
never abuses her or speaks cross to
her, and her peculiar conduct inter-
ests him so much that he takes pleas
ure in telling about it to his friends.
A wealthy gentleman in the upper
part of Scranton has watch dog that
$500 could not buy. 1t is a thorough
bred English mastiff, and the gentle
man tells this story about his watch
full conduct: AT about ii O'Clock one
night when the full moon was shining
brightly, the gentleman happened to
look out of the back window just after
he had turned off the gas preparatory
to going to bed and saw a man leap
over the fence into the yard. He told
his wife about it, remarking at
the same time that he guessed
Samson would take care of the in
truder before he did any damage. He
had no sooner said this than Samson
sprang out of his kennel at the man,
and the man rushed into an Outhouse
and slammed the door behind him.
The owner of the premises. knowing
that there was nothing in the out,
house that the nocturnal visitor would
care to carry away if he had a chance,
and believing that the mastiff would
properly attend to the intruder when
he got ready to come out,
went to bed instead of going
out to see what the man
wanted around there. In the morning
the faithful dog was still watching the
outhouse door, and the gentleman
raised the window and spoke to the
dog. AS Sampson turned to see what
his master wanted OF him dirty tramp
sprang out of the outhouse and made
for the fence, a few feet away. The
dog heard his step and turned that
way as quick as flash. The tramp
had just grasped the top OF the
fence when the dog got there, and
he made a desperate effort to get
away. He got over the fence before
the mastiff had a chance to bite him,
but he left a good portion OF one OF
his garments on the other side with
the dog and then he ran like fright
ened deer, the gentleman command
ing the dog not to follow him. The
fellow was sneak burglar, and two
nights later he was caught while at
tempting to steal clothing from hall
wav on the same street.
Two tame gray squirrels are the
favorite pets Of an animal lover on
Franklin avenue. The squirrels run
about the house like two kittens and
are obedient to their master every
time he tells them to go to their cage.
He often takes them about town
with him, to their apparent pleasure
and satisfaction. Whenever he tells
them that they can go along they
skip up his legs and crawl into the
pockets of his sack coat, where they
A.4Ia La.u., until ha antara a store